Using XML during data model configuration

Foundation Objects is a fundamental aspect of Employee Central. Foundation Objects allow the company to define and store its organization, pay, and job structures, which helps organize employee information.

Some of these objects are managed through the Metadata Framework as MetaData Framework (MDF) Objects, while XML-based objects are managed through Corporate Data Model.

Another important component of Employee Central is the HR data structure. Employee Central stores personal employee information, such as date of birth and national ID, and employment information, such as job title and salary.

One of the key features of SAP SuccessFactors is the ease with which you can maintain data. The solution offers both employee and manager self-service. This feature is controlled through role-based permissions (RBP) that allow you to decide who can view and edit data in the system. Managers and employees can initiate changes to their data or their subordinate’s data.

In this unit, you'll learn about the Employee Central system's setup, including the Admin Center configuration and the relevant XML files.

Data Models describe how data elements are structured in a database. They also define the properties that these elements possess and their relationships to each other.

Complete the following interaction to get a basic understanding of XML configuration.

The data models in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central play a critical role in configuring customer requirements. You've already seen an example of visibility and custom labels in the interaction, Person Info Element. Remember you could'nt see the Date of Death field and that the Place of Birth field was relabeled to the City of Birth. When configuring the data models, you can:

• Set the visibility of a field in the instance.
• Define custom labels and fields.
• Define the relationship among Foundation Objects.
• Set the order of fields that appear in the instance.
• Set a picklist for a field.

Any changes made in the data model must comply with the Data Type Definition (DTD). That means you can't add a new element, field, or attribute unless it's defined in the DTD. When a particular field isn't needed in the configuration, we recommend you hide the field rather than delete it from the data model. If it must be deleted, for whatever reason, we recommend you set the visibility to "none" before deleting the field.

Use the interaction to learn how the data models are used in Employee Central.

The Corporate Data Model controls the underlying information structure for some corporate data, such as Location and Location Group. The rest of the organizational structure, such as Legal Entity, Business Unit, Division, etc., was moved to the Metadata Framework, which can be managed through the Admin Center.

Corporate data is categorized into four main areas:

1. Organization-Related Structures
2. Pay-Related
3. Job-Related
4. Others

You can see the standard pre-delivered objects in the figure, Corporate Data.

Additionally, corporate information may contain country-specific information. For example, the Location object may contain different address formats depending on the country. These country-specific fields and formats are configured in the Country-Specific Corporate Data Model.

The Corporate and CSF Corporate Data Models are uploaded initially in Provisioning during implementation.

Succeeding import and export can be made in Provisioning or from the Admin Center using the Import/Export Corporate Data Model and Import/Export Country/Region-Specific XML for Corporate Data Model tools.

Both Provisioning and Admin Center allow for backup versioning.

In the course files, you are provided with an abridged version of the Data Models and the corresponding DTDs to be used for the next exercise. However, the standard Data Models and DTDs must be downloaded from the SAP Download Center for actual Employee Central implementation projects.

Correctly validate data models by linking the correct DTD. For example, to validate Succession Data Model (SDM) against sf-form.dtd, replace the URL from "http://svn/viewvc/svn/V4/trunk/src/com/sf/dtd/sf-form.dtd?view=co"> to "sf-form.dtd">. This will allow the data model to read the DTD, provided both SDM and DTD are in the same local folder.

There are two supplemental guides in the SAP Help portal which describe the data models used in SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite and the corresponding fields in the data models. These are:

• SAP SuccessFactors Data Model Reference Guide
• Data Model Field Information for Employee Central